Friday, September 30, 2011

Mary MacKillop Bronze for Sydney installed.

Site works in preparation for the new "Mary"
Just showing a glimpse of the statue being installed at North Sydney on Wednesday.

The sculpture plus the portable gantry.
The sculpture arrived bedded on a matress in the trailer from Melbourne.



Moving the sculpture .

In place



Part of the crowd watching the procedure.
It's all wrapped up ready for October 17th.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Installing new Mary MacKillop Bronze tomorrow.

Early start tomorrow, leaving home at 4.30am to catch the 6.05am flight to Sydney.
The foundry will be installing the new bronze sculpture of Mary MacKillop about 10.30 am.The grounds should be ready with new area in sandstone for the installation.
The sculpture will not be unveiled for a couple of weeks yet. There will be a celebration Mass and blessing of the new statue at 10.00am on Monday 17th October 2011.
John and I will be in Sydney for 3 days to attend the unveiling.Can't wait!!

Finally the hands
In the meanwhile I have been working on the hands of the bust and I am close to finishing. I need to look at the folds of clothing and finish this part off.I'm not sure whether I will do the moldmaking myself or get some professional people to do it for me. I will have to price the job and will have to know associated costs.


Still have to finish the folds in the clothing.
We went to Stirling markets in the Adelaide hills on Sunday and had a lovely morning in the sunshine looking at all the stalls including Ang and Rose's pottery stall. Saw a few old hippies there as well.
I also bought a couple of books on South Australian wildflowers at Stirling ,Tanya I know you will be pleased that I have finally bought them, Thank you.


My new  Wildflower book.

I also finished painting the last of the slipped pots and dropped them off at TT Studios for a bisque firing.

Slipped and coloured pots.


Saturday, September 24, 2011

Ang's Slipware Workshop

I spent most of today at the Tea Tree Studios at Ang's workshop on slipware and I enjoyed myself playing with slip and trying valiently to try Hannah MacAndrew's beautiful slipped drawings and Doug Fitch's designs and I found that it requires much practice and patience.
I believe this is a pot of Hannah's, Ang brought back with her.

We watched Ang's video of the three workshops she attended in the US of Hannah and Doug's methods of slipware and the sounds of Doug's band playing. It was most enjoyable and so good to watch their sure handedness in working with slip.





watching video
Selection of pots from English potters


Ang,s demo of slip, drying by the heater
I went to the studio on Wednesday to see what people were making for the workshop and as I have not thrown any pots for ages except some mugs a few months back, Ang told me to get a move on and go home and throw some pots.
So I threw some little bowls, a couple of plates and some slightly bigger bowls and actually finished them and trimmed them yesterday .It has been a long long time since I have thrown much of anything but somehow I managed to get these done .


My pots for the workshop


First slipped bowl.




The slip nossle was way too big and the slip a little too slippery.


First try at a plate, what a mess.
The slip was beautiful but it required a finer hole to control the delivery and a lot of practice but nevertheless I enjoyed myself "like a pig in mud" and had a good time trying it out.It really has a luscious look and I understand the comment about it being good enough to eat.
Thanks Doug and Hannah for showing the fine control they have over this medium, I" take my hat off to them.


Could't stop playing with the slip.

Anna working on her slip.
Mellie did clay tiles.
Merrilyn came a long way for the workshop and bought a friend with her.
We go way back to 1980 when we were both at college together in the same year studying for our Design Degree in Ceramics at Underdale,SA

Ang on the go .
Ang cleaning up at the end of the workshop.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Back to sculpting and Ang's Slipware workshop this weekend.

Ang's Slipware workshop is this weekend.
I have had a relaxing time out whilst I finished my painting.
Now that I have finished I need to get back to the bust of Mary MacKillop and finish modelling it so it can have molds made of it.



I took the arms and hands off to place the crucifix behind the hands and have just begun to model the arms and hands back again. I spent a couple of hours today working on it but I still have to work more on the actual finger placement. Photos show how far I got before I stopped this afternoon.

We went to visit our daughter who has a fractured ankle and is in plaster. Their young 6 month old dog dashed across Lisa as they were walking and she heard the break.

My walking and running friend has recently run a half marathon and on Sunday also ran the local 'City to Bay"
12 km run and did it in 67 minutes and Cathy was very happy with her time.
I ran it last year with my son in law and I took 75 minutes last year but I haven't been training this year and Cathy is determined to get me running so this Thursday we are off on a run to see how I go. My knees are not what they used to be.


Cathy near the end of the half Marathon
I have to throw some plates and bowls in earthenware tomorrow or the next day and trim them ready for Ang's Slipware workshop.It should be great as she has the ear of a few very famous slipware potters, Doug Fitch, Hannah McAndrew and Ron Philbeck, such great wonderful potters.
and  photos as well of her trips.
She made a great poster for the workshop but as yet have been unable to download it onto my blog.
I keep getting the message "error try again"
Still can't download it darn.


Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Painting finished

Self portrait, (note my arthritic fingers)
I've had a grand time working on this painting. I've just signed it and will be sending it as an entry into the Prospect Portrait Prize and hope it will be accepted as an entry.
It's quite a while since I painted but it was great to get back into painting so quickly, so wish me luck!!
I can now go back to work on my sculpture.
Ang is having a workshop on Slip  next weekend so I am looking forward to it as she will be showing photos of her trips overseas and all the wonderful pottery she has seen,

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

New Portrait in Oils

I have wanted to get back to some painting and when I saw that the Prospect Portrait Prize was again on this year ( as it is held every two years) I thought i would put an entry in. The entries are due by 16th September and only 25 will be selected for the exhibition, so I will have to be good to make the selection.
I envisaged painting my face with white face paint  with the eyes natural and the mouth as well.
A few years ago about the mid 90's I painted a portrait similar with a white face  so I thought I would like to do a new take on this.

Self Portrait 1995
I ordered some face paint online and asked my husband to photograph me painted in facepaint,and to make it more significent I wanted to hold a bunch of sculpting tools.
John photographed me but after looking at the results i thought it looked a bit too bland so I added black circles of face paint round the eyes and whilst i was painting I made the black colour too wet and it ran down my cheek.
I  decided to use this accident as part of the painting.
This is the work so far.


Beginning the oil painting.

.
Painting so far
I'm actually enjoying the process and it's a change from sculpture.I still have my bust wrapped in plastic but i need to get a move on and complete it before the closing date.

I also received some photos from Ang that she took at the Saint Ignatius Art Show so that I could post them.
I forgot to take a camera and it was such a good opening  night.



Nude Bust in bronze



Standing beside The little 12 year old Dancer 2/3 life size



Tuesday, September 6, 2011

I wasn't able to set up my photos in order last time I blogged so after a rest I am trying again.
Using a mirror to see faults


A piece of foil helps to keep the shape




slowly building up the form of the veil


My photos of Mary MacKillop
Mary MacKillop died 101 years ago and there are 14 photos of her as a sister and these are the best photos to use.There are none of her in profile .

My small slab roller that I bought off my sister
My dear sister was a potter and a painter. Gwen was a great person to talk to although we lived in different states, about 800km apart.
She died of Lung cancer four years ago  and I sorely miss her as she was so enthusiastic and so supportive of my work.

Happy with the look of the face.

Work in the front of the veil.




The hands are left till the last so they don't get damaged.
Beginning the back of the veil.
Work so far, I have not worked on the bust for a while as other enquiries have taken my time this last week.
I have had an enquiry for a model for a gravestone to be to be carved in granite, so I have taken a break from the bust.

All I need to do is spray the bust with water and then wrap the piece in several layers of plastic. I usually wrap a plastic paint drop sheet round the piece I am working on and tie a couple pieces of twine to secure it in place.